Facelift

Do you know how to make a Moscow journalist drop everything for a test or presentation? Just utter the magic word "facelift" in his presence — and he's ready to fly to the ends of the earth, stuffing his backpack with cameras, and patiently endure a multi-hour layover at the airport.

It was this very magic word, mentioned in Mazda's invitation, that lured me, along with a small group of colleagues from Russia and Europe, to distant Croatia to get acquainted with the updated Mazda BT-50 pickup. Facelift…

Imagination, of course, immediately painted something incredibly "zoom-zoom": with elongated headlights, a sharp-angled grille, and sculpted fenders. Something so futuristic that the current Mitsubishi L200 would seem utterly mundane next to it. So, upon receiving the press kit about the new "BT" at the airport, I first opened the spread with a large photo… and stared at the image for several minutes, trying to understand: what, exactly, had changed? No use — I had to look into the press release.

It turned out that the "facelifted" Mazda BT-50 had only one exterior change — the front bumper, made together with the grille. The grille itself became pentagonal and acquired a chrome checkmark strip at the bottom, while the large air intake in the bumper was made trapezoidal and more "aggressive" by the Japanese (or Malaysian?) designers. That's all.

Facelift? Why not… Lately, we've seen many times how differently automakers understand this term. Some, like Ford with the Focus, change all body panels except the roof during an update. Others — for example, Peugeot in the case of the "407" — call a car a facelift when only the number of cells in the fake grille has changed.

But the BT-50, besides the bumper, also had the internal structure of the headlights refined and the design of the wheel rims updated! And if you carefully study the press materials, you'll learn that the "BT" will now be offered in five new colors, including glamorous turquoise and rich blue, with a total of 11 body shades available for this pickup. Plus three new two-tone paint options: silver "bottom" and dark gray, turquoise, or black "top." It looks nice, but the surcharge for the unusual color is 18 thousand rubles.

In the accessories list for the BT-50, a branded hardtop for the bed appeared (previously Mazda dealers offered the same one but from the Ford Ranger) and an original trunk that attaches in the cargo area and is equipped with two key-lockable lids.

Inside the Mazda BT-50, everything is the same, except for the red instrument lighting instead of the dull green (though some colleagues assured me that green bulbs seem incredibly cozy to them) and the addition of a separate connector for connecting an mp3 player. In base versions, a new fabric is used for seat upholstery, while expensive modifications now include a leather interior. However, leather-wrapped steering wheel and gear lever can be ordered on simpler versions, as can electric adjustment of side mirrors with heating.

But technically, the BT-50 hasn't changed at all — it still comes with the torquey 2.5-liter turbodiesel, a proper all-wheel-drive transmission with a rigidly engaged front axle and a self-locking differential at the rear. The "BT" also has purely rear-wheel-drive modifications, but they are not sold here.

During the presentation in Dubrovnik, we were allowed to drive all modifications of the updated Mazda BT-50 — with single, extended (where the rear side door panels open against the direction of travel), and double cabs. But in Russia, as before, only the "double cab" version will be sold — true cargo modifications of pickups are hardly in demand in our country.

We also won't see (at least in the foreseeable future) a version of the "BT" with an automatic transmission. Despite all the pleas from the Russian Mazda office and dealers, the head office still hasn't decided to start supplying "automatic pickups" to our market. And that's strange, because pickups with "automatics" are already produced — for Australia, but only with right-hand drive. And without the "hydromechanics," the BT-50 in Russia has no chance in the fight for the title of best-selling pickup against the popular Mitsubishi L200.

On the other hand, the Japanese can also be understood: Russia, although it is the largest sales market for "BTs" in Europe, significantly ahead of Greece, the UK, and Germany, still sells only 3-4 thousand cars a year — that's too little to bother with producing a special version for our country. Our "Mazda" will have to keep increasing sales, if the crisis doesn't interfere…

Meanwhile, the new Mazda BT-50 is already on sale in Russia — live cars began arriving at dealers in early October. Prices increased by 7-15 thousand rubles depending on the modification: the "bare" pickup (even without air conditioning) in the Direct version now sells for 626 thousand rubles.

The most popular "BT" in the Touring trim with body-colored bumpers and fender flares, air conditioning, power windows, leather-wrapped steering wheel and gear lever, heated mirrors, a full set of airbags, an mp3 stereo, and alloy wheels will cost 741 thousand rubles.

And the most expensive Active trim with a leather interior and the fullest list of additional equipment will now sell for 851 thousand rubles.

P.S. Don't be surprised that there are no driving impressions in the text. The fact is that the new "BT" in this regard is no different from the "old" model. The pickup, as before, seems very comfortable on dirt roads, has good directional stability on good asphalt, and on a long journey pleases the driver and passengers with decent sound insulation and comfortable seats.

Therefore, read all other "driving" details about the Mazda pickup below, in the material of my colleague, who drove the pre-facelift "BT" several thousand kilometers during his trip to Karelia.

My colleagues and I had to cover almost a thousand kilometers to reach the Onega River. The road turned out to be interesting, but the passengers in the back seat certainly didn't find it fun. In the city, the pickup feels quite tolerable: the leaf springs and solid rear axle hardly remind you of themselves. However, on the highway at high speed, rear passengers had to buckle up and grip the handles to avoid hitting their heads on the roof. And still, on every bump, they were tossed around as if they were bowling pins after a strike. A fully loaded bed — and just the boat with the motor weighed over a hundred kilograms, not counting fuel cans, jacks, and other gear — didn't reduce the shaking. And what about the rear axle sliding on corners? Once, I almost spun out when I was slowly pulling out of a yard onto the road. The asphalt was wet, I turned the wheel right, pressed the gas slightly — and the rear end immediately slid sideways… Now it's clear why the Mazda BT-50 manual strongly recommends engaging four-wheel drive on slippery surfaces. I confirm from my own experience: without it, the pickup's rear will constantly try to slide out. On the way, the "BT" — or rather its stereo — developed a funny glitch: after about three hours of continuous music playback, it would eject the disc and refuse to work further. The disc was so hot that it was impossible to hold in your hands. We had to wait for it to cool down and then feed it back into the system. And it worked! During the trip, I came to terms with the hard interior materials, seats without side support, and cheap plastic — for a pickup, believe me, that's not the main thing. The only thing I never got used to was the handbrake sticking out to the right of the steering wheel. I constantly forgot to release the parking brake. The closer we got to the final point, the worse the cellular signal became, and with it, all the usefulness of the only detailed map on the GPS phone disappeared. The paper map, however, promised that the lake was nearby — we just needed to drive through the forest… A local resident we asked for directions to Onega looked at us with outright disdain: "You want to get to Onega in this? Even UAZs get stuck here, and your foreign car definitely won't make it anywhere." Nevertheless, we risked venturing onto the 17-kilometer forest road. At first, I was plagued by doubts about the tires — it seemed the road tires would let us down. But no, the pickup plowed through puddles like an icebreaker, throwing mud and water aside. A couple of times I caught myself thinking that just a little more — and the Mazda would be hopelessly stuck… But in each subsequent puddle, the wheels found solid ground again, and the truck triumphantly made it back to dry land. We covered about five kilometers this way. Then we encountered a huge, deep puddle on our path. Diving into it on a whim was risky: the tractor was far away, and we definitely couldn't pull the BT-50 out while standing waist-deep in water. The only option was to try to go around this "sea" along the edge. I surged forward, the bed tilted, the front wheels climbed onto the hill, but the five-meter body didn't allow completing the maneuver — the pickup sat down on the rear axle. For over an hour, we unsuccessfully tried to pull the Mazda off the bump. There was nothing to hook the jack to: around the body's perimeter, there was solid plastic and decorative pipes that wouldn't withstand the load. In the end, we managed to connect the jack to the right front wheel disc with a strap and lift the pickup. This trick didn't work with the other wheels: the long handle of the hi-lift jack pressed against the body and could dent panels or scratch the paint. Good thing one wheel was enough. A few minutes later, the Mazda finally came off the bump and rolled back. But we didn't dare go further — there was an even deeper puddle ahead. In the end, we had to leave the BT-50 in the yard of a local resident and cover the remaining 17 kilometers to the lake by boat along the river. Still, I was pleased with the Mazda. Pleased that, as long as the geometric off-road capability held out, the pickup never made me doubt its off-road talents. And on the way back, I completely fell in love with the 2.5-liter diesel: up to 130–140 km/h, it maintains excellent torque and confidently accelerates the truck. By the way, according to the documents, the pickup's top speed is 158 km/h, but in reality, I got it up to almost 180. Maybe the speedometer is lying?

Mazda BT-50 Specifications

Length, mm	5075
Width, mm	1805
Height, mm	1760
Wheelbase, mm	3000
Curb weight, kg	1800
Engine displacement, cm3	2499
Power, hp/rpm	143/3500
Torque, Nm/rpm	330/1800
Acceleration 0-100 km/h, s	12.5
Top speed, km/h	158
Fuel consumption (combined), l/100 km	8.9

Mykhailo Tsymbal